Kiting

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The act of kiting is a combat tactic of a player character keeping a mob or another player at a certain distance, usually out of melee distance but within ranged attack, and luring the pursuer toward your direction while dealing damage at the same time. When this strategy is used against an outdoor boss (Durn the Hungerer, note that this is no longer possible) or any other similar type, kiting will take a significantly longer time, aside from your damage. This is a tactic best suited for classes who deal most of their damage from range and are weak in melee range. Mages and hunters are probably the classes who rely on this technique the most.

Warlocks who are specced for Curse of Exhaustion can also use this technique to kite mobs, provided that the target is not immune to slowing effects. It is difficult, but not impossible, to kill certain mobs this way if they are immune to Fear (a tactic that can work against enemy officers in Alterac Valley; but is no longer possible.)

This is also a pretty effective duelling and/or pvp technique for mages. In some open instances, a mage might be asked to pve kite a mob, this is a means of crowd control or simply for the mage to dps one target and the rest of the group focuses on the main mob.

Some instances have mobs that cannot be crowd controlled. It is better if the tank can double tank the mobs or if the group has an off-tank to handle one. However, if both options are not feasible, a skillful hunter (sometimes mage) is the best at kiting one of the mobs. Nevertheless, given the limited space inside instances, as well as the important of keeping aggro of the kited mob so that it will not turn to your healer, kiting in instance is much harder than in open area.

Use of Aspect of the Cheetah here depends on your playstyle. Although it lets you run faster, if you get one hit, you will be dazed and this probably means death in heroic or raid instances.

Sometimes mobs that cannot be CC'ed with other means can still be stunned. Therefore, when the mob get close, a Beast Mastery hunter can order his pet to intimidate the mob, followed with an immediate wing clip, so that he will have time to get into range again.

When the group finished the other mobs and is ready to pick up your kited target, you can lure it back to your group, or simply feign death if you are sure the tank can pick it up quickly.

Snaring spells are useful for this tactic since they keep the pursuer at a certain distance. Although rooting abilities fill this requirement, the slowing movement effect from snaring spells last longer than rooting spells. Moreover, snare effects do not risk the chance of breaking if the target get any damage unlike most rooting spells.

This tactic requires room to run. If you don't have the room due to adds or environmental restrictions (i.e. you are indoors) then you will not be able to kite since you will be unable to gain the range you need.

In World of Warcraft, mobs will run back to their spawn area if they are kited too far without taking damage. They also regenerate to full health and mana once they return. So when kiting you will want to damage them consistently in order to maintain the mob's interest.

There is also a video of Lord Kazzak being kited to Stormwind,in order to wreak havoc on the city. Unfortunately, Kazzak is no longer kitable, being chained (one can also say that he can't be kited because he now resides in Outland; though, of course, his replacement is highly likely to be chained as well). Another example of raid kiting is Azuregos kited to Orgrimmarhere.

Note that kiting (raid) bosses to heavily populated areas such as faction capitals, most likely resulting in a large number of characters being unwillingly involved (in an encounter), and may be considered rude, and most annoying to those unsuspecting - but nonetheless fun for everyone else...

Can also be used to describe a friendly (normally High-Level) Player "running" another friendly Player through a Dungeon or Quest (also called Boosting)